On the heels of its eight(!) published opinions today, the Court of Appeals of Maryland released its July 2015 certiorari grants. There are only four grants, three of which involve disputes with the Maryland Department of the Environment. The cases, with questions presented, appear after the jump. Read More…

Traditionally, the preclusive effects of res judicata and collateral estoppel applied only if the parties in the second case were the same as, or in privity with, the parties in the first case. This was commonly referred to as the “strict mutuality of parties” requirement, but the Court of Appeals “long ago discarded” that requirement for both res judicata and collateral estoppel. Caldor, Inc. v. Bowden, 330 Md. 632, 657 (1993) (citations omitted). Thus, it is now “irrelevant that the party seeking to assert collateral estoppel was not a party to the prior proceeding. Only the party against whom collateral estoppel is asserted need be a party or in privity with a party in the prior adjudication.” Id. at 657.

The Court of Appeals of Maryland has six weeks (minus a day) until its self-imposed deadline of August 31 to issue opinions in all cases heard from September 2014 through June 2015. We count 23 such cases awaiting opinions: 11 criminal appeals, 8 civil appeals, and 4 attorney discipline cases. Those numbers include three cases (1 civil, 2 attorney discipline) where the Court issued a per curiam order immediately after argument and indicated that an opinion was forthcoming. If this year shakes down like last year, we should expect most of those opinions to come down in the days following the Court’s July 23 conference, with the remaining handful of opinions coming down in August. If you want a preview of what’s coming, the Court’s Pending Cases list provides a handy guide.

You can keep joking away. Steve Lash is reporting, from behind the The Daily Record paywall, that there were only two applications filed by today’s deadline. Both applications came from Democratic appointees to lower courts: Read More…

“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” quipped Martin Mull, summing up in eight words the difficulties and frustrations (and perhaps questionable merit) of trying to adequately convey the nature of a song in written language. I’ve been reviewing music for about a decade now, and it is a never-ending struggle; there is simply no smooth conversion from sound to text. In the realm of intellectual-property law, this constant challenge for critics becomes the occasional burden for the federal judiciary – as Fourth Circuit Judge Pamela Harris recently discovered in resolving a headline-making copyright case involving two pop mega-stars.

Since the Maryland Appellate Blog’s debut in September 2013, the “Blogroll” at the bottom of our home page has included Hercules and the Umpire, written by Senior U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf of the District of Nebraska. His blog has offered terrific, insightful commentary from a judge who cares about justice and who vocally deplores injustice. Also, in offering updates on treatment for cancer (thankfully in remission), Judge Kopf has helped to humanize the judiciary. But Judge Kopf made serious mistakes along the way, leading to a not-unexpected outcome this week.

Judge Kopf announced on Thursday that he will cease adding new posts. I’m glad he has seen the light, but I’m sad it came to this. This decision follows the latest in a series of missteps. Read More…

The Court of Appeals has issued twoopinions since June 27. Each has an asterisk in the list of judges: “Harrell, J., participated in the hearing of the case, in the conference in regard to its decision and in the adoption of the opinion but he retired from the Court prior to the filing of the opinion.”